About our Beef

Because of the beneficial effects on the cows and the final beef product, Meadow View Farm maintains a low-stress, caring environment for the animals.  The main farm's approximately 275 acres of pasture land provides ideal natural surroundings for the cattle, and a new barn houses the Belties comfortably during the cold winter months.  Our cows finish at their own pace on nutritionally-rich natural grasses, and the herd is handled with care and personal attention.  Our methods and patience were rewarded in 2003 when we sent our first two steers for slaughter and they both came back top-choice -- the highest rating they could have received.            

Grass Fed Beef

            We raise all of our cattle strictly on grasses, and finish them on grass as well. This has proven to produce the highest CLA count in the beef, and CLA’s (conjugated linoleic acids), suppresses the formation of cancer cells and reduce vascular blockage . Omega 3’s also reach high, healthy levels while the cattle are on pasture, and plummet dramatically when that beef is moved to the feedlot, which we never do with our cattle.

            All cattle are ruminants, meaning that they have multiple chambers in their stomachs, and by design they can digest grasses, which humans cannot. They are not designed and bred to be raised in feedlots where their diet consists almost entirely of corn, and actually causes them a great deal of illness and discomfort. So much so that feedlot animals are also given copious amounts of antibiotics, like Rumensin, to counteract the acidity in the rumen, helping to prevent bloat and acidosis; and Tylosin, a form of ethromycin, to lower the incidence of liver infection.

            The sad truth is that the vast majority of antibiotics sold in this country each year go to the animals being raised in feedlots, and though they are clearly sick and need these treatments, they wouldn’t be sick in the first place if not for the diet these industrial farms are forcing them to eat.

            So why feed them corn, and not let them graze on open fields? Because it takes quite a bit longer to raise cows on grass. A typical grass fed cow matures after 2 years of age, and even up to 4 years, whereas a feedlot cow is fattened up over the course of 150 days, which is about as long as he can live on that grain diet, even with all those antibiotics pumped into him.

            This unnaturally rich diet of corn, labeled euphemistically as “calories are calories”, that undermines a steer’s health while fattening his flesh, also undermines the health of the humans who will eat it. Some health experts warn that this overuse of antibiotics will lead to their ineffectiveness in humans, and lead to super-resistant strains of bacteria in animals, which could then culminate in serious human health problems sooner than later.

            The cows on Meadow View Farm are more fortunate in that their lives are lived as nature intended. Like Argentina, where all of their beef is grass fed, and produces some of the best beef in the world, we haven’t gotten on the corn bandwagon, and we never will. Note: The incidence of heart disease in Argentina is 70% less than that in the United States.

            Come visit us at Meadow View Farm, on Darling Hill Road, in Lyndonville, Vermont, and see what a farm operation is supposed to look like. We have tours regularly, and are putting educational programs together for this Spring and Fall.

“Why Grassfed Meats are Really Cheap at Twice the Price”, The Stockman Grass Farmer, October, 2005, Volume 62, #10, page 14, by Glen Boudreaux.

See, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, a natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan,  pages 78-80, published by Penguin Press, 2006

Ibid. pages 280-281.